US Veto on Apple Ban Has Got South Korea Concerned

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The Obama government, on Saturday, has passed a veto court ruling that would have stopped the Apple Company from selling older models of the iPhone and iPad in the US market. Following a patent infringement dispute with Samsung, another leading smartphone manufacturer based in Korea, in June, the decision was made by the United States International Trade Commission so as to implement a limited import ban.

Initially, the United States International Trade Commission has issued a ban on several older AT&T versions of iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 2 3G and iPad 3G. Under this order, the iPhone manufacturer would not have been able to import the devices from China to the US, the former being where they are built and assembled.

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However, Michael Froman, the US trade representative, after a series of extensive consultations with several noteworthy agencies, has decided to disapprove the Trade Commission’s resolution to issue an exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order of the investigation.

In fact, the US Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy has openly agreed to the fact that this decision would have a clearly negative impact on the protection of patent rights. The review of the decision was primarily because of the fact that once the news of the veto court ruling reached South Korea, its media lashed out at the decision and called it outright protectionism.

The decision of the case of patent dispute between the two smartphone manufacturers is due on Friday. Such cases of lawsuits have been going on since 2011, with each company blaming the other for unlawfully copying the other’s design, user interface and technology of their respective products.

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About John W Arthur

John is the head of our IT Security team and he writes about Security, IT news on The Next Digit. He was the Employee of the Year 2013 for his selfless support and efficiently setting up the whole security infrastructure. He also occasionally writes on "IT Sec Pro" Print Media of Sweden. All posts by John